Jordan Peterson is an award-winning lecturer at the University of Toronto, a practicing clinical psychologist, and the author of the revolutionary book on the psychology of religion Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief.

He is most famous, however, for his YouTube channel, which has 270,000+ subscribers. An insane amount considering most of his videos are over an hour long and cover very deep topics such as philosophy, mythology, psychology, and religion.

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The universe and the human brain have something important in common. The inner workings of both are invisible. At this moment you have no perception of what’s happening in your brain; neural activity is unknown to the mind of the person to whom the neurons belong without the invention of brain scans to reveal that activity, and then only crudely. Imagine, being a master of a house and not knowing or seeing what is inside the house.

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Happy Wallpaper Wednesday everyone! This week’s Wallpaper was a perfect way to inspire and set the tone for a wonderful day. See my thoughts below the image:

Regardless of what you thought about the movie, Achilles in Troy is making a very good point. Gods are immortal. They live forever. Nothing can kill them. But at the same time, they lack the contrast of life and death to help motivate them to really appreciate the world around them.

True, that the beauty of something is not measured by the fact that it ends, but a subtle reminder that not all things are forever (life included) can act as a motivation not to waste the few precious moments that we have on this planet.

Here we are, this moment, right here…and there is so much beauty to appreciate, to love, to embrace in. Close your eyes…what do you hear? Look around…what do you see? What do you touch? What do you feel? Take a few seconds to really appreciate the beauty around you…and this moment. Because this moment is going to end in the blink of an eye, replaced with another. So take advantage and be mindful of the here and now.

It is fleeing. It is already disappearing. But you can appreciate it, and life, before it does.

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Different things can inspire us, motivate us, or make us think. The act of thinking alone is an exercise that allows our mind to explore alternative viewpoints, and gather new knowledge. Much like our bodies need nutrients, our minds also need stimulation. Think back to the last time you really stimulated your mind. What did you do?

I was fortunate enough to meet up with a few friends yesterday and meet someone who was a physicist. When I was younger, I used to love astronomy but I slowly let it fade into the background of life. Meeting this man was an opportunity to open my mind and have him try and fill it with what he knew. Our conversation turned to life, the universe and everything, and one of my friends asked him a complicated question: “What came before the big bang then?”

As a physicist who was used to some of these very complicated ideas, he tried to explain. “‘What came before?’ may not necessarily be the right question to ask.” And he proceeded to explain why. His reply was complicated, but he used many examples to eventually help us understand his reasoning. In the end, we were left with an image of our universe that was breathtaking, beautiful, and horrific at the same time.

Grasping these complex concepts took a bit of work. Occasionally we would ask him to give us a pause to process. But at the end of our discussion, all of us were left thinking. There was a kind of peaceful tranquility about having learned something new, and I could see it in his eyes too since he had just helped us all learn it (which had no doubt helped him process and articulate some otherwise very complication concepts).

Happiness can come from stimulation. But the feeling of “newness” doesn’t have to come from material possessions. It can come from new ideas, new perspectives, new experiences. Seek them out. A jolt of happiness and inspiration can be only one new idea away.